An Unexpected Ally?

An Unexpected Ally?

Now that the Eliot Spitzer administration is behind us, perhaps
we can focus our attention again on tackling the most pressing
issues facing New Yorkers. Let's hope education leads the list.

Recent data from Department of Education reveals that many of
our public schools are failing to provide our children with a
quality education. Many hope the change in Albany will bring some
needed change into the system -- might newly-inaugurated Governor
David Patterson prove to be an unexpected ally of
school-choice?

In New York, taxpayers spend more than $14,000 on every child in
public school each year. That's $5,000 more than the national
average.

But the state doesn't get much bang for the bucks. Years of
education budget increases have failed to deliver real improvement.
Mediocre test scores, poor retention rates and increasingly
alarming drop out rates ought to compel even the staunchest
supporters of the status quo to reconsider their approach.
Unfortunately, when education does take center stage in public
policy debates, most are content to make small tweaks instead of
really dealing with this important issue.

According to a 2006 USA Today article, New York had the
dishonorable distinction of having the third-lowest graduation rate
among our country's big cities. Only 39 percent of city students
graduate. (In case you are wondering, only Detroit and Baltimore
had lower graduation rates.) And as if these numbers weren't scary
enough, minority Americans are a disproportionate number of public
school attendees.

Instead of throwing even more money at education, what if
lower-income New York families were afforded the same opportunity
that wealthy New York families have in deciding which school to
send their children? By empowering families with this important
freedom, children would not be trapped in failing public schools
and schools would be encouraged to improve to keep attracting
students.

The truth is that we don't have to wonder if taking this
approach would result in higher test scores because we can look to
places such as Florida that have enacted modest, but important
reforms, to increase school choice. Over the past decade, minority
students in Florida have made dramatic gains on reading and test
scores, thanks to aggressive education reform policies that have
been implemented with bipartisan support.

New York needs the same kinds of bold reforms.
Fortunately, there is some reason for hope: Gov. Patterson has
demonstrated a willingness to step outside the boundaries of
liberal orthodoxy when looking at education.

In education circles, he's known as realist and a pragmatist who
sympathizes with the need to give parents the power to choose the
best school for their children. And yet, there are instances when
he has reverted to siding with the Left to prevent the expansion of
school choice, such as when he voted against a 1998 New York
Charter school bill.

It's unlikely Patterson could have imagined that in 2008 he'd
become the 55th Governor of one of the biggest and most
important states in the country. Now that destiny has thrust him
into the state's highest office, Gov. Patterson needs to act in the
best interest of the state and support bold education reform that
empower parents to choose the best school for their children. New
Yorkers should demand nothing less.

Israel Ortega is a Senior Media Services Associate at the
Heritage Foundation. www.heritage.org.